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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Farmers sell gold on fears of poor crop-Sutanuka Ghosal

Farmers sell gold on fears of poor crop-Sutanuka Ghosal

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published Published on Jul 6, 2012   modified Modified on Jul 6, 2012
-The Economic Times

Piyush Khanolkar, a 38-year-old farmer from the Marathwada district of Maharashtra, has just sold off 10 gm of gold which he had accrued over a period of last five years to a local jeweller.

With good rains not in sight yet, he has been forced to sell off the gold to create a corpus to meet his family needs in the coming months if there is a crop failure.

Prabhu Dhar Rajput, a paddy farmer from Madhya Pradesh, has also sold part of household gold recently but for a different reason. "I have to sell gold to buy farm inputs. I am expecting the monsoon to arrive shortly and if the crop is good I will again be able to purchase gold that I have just given away," said Rajput.

A late arrival of monsoon is forcing farmers, mostly from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, to sell off their household gold, an asset that they have created over a period of time.

Lalit Jagawat, director of Zaveri Bazar-based Nakoda Bullion, said: "Farmers have started offloading gold and are using the money for buying agri inputs. We have noticed the trend gathering momentum in the last two weeks. They are relying on the high price of gold." Prices of gold in the spot market on Monday were hovering around 29,650 per 10 gm.

Bombay Bullion Association president Pritviraj Kothari said that scrap gold sales in the market is already on the rise.

"Last year, scrap gold sales in the market was to the tune of 130 tonne. But this year, scrap sales may go up to 300 tonne and import will be much less. The monsoon has been disappointing till now, bringing down our expectations of gold purchase.

If this continues over the month, farmers would not prefer to buy the metal. Rather, there will be more sales of scrap gold by the farming community. Imports of gold therefore will be lower as availability in the market will be on the higher side." India had imported 878 tonne of gold in 2011.

In the fourth week of the season ended June 27, rains that provide most of the water for 55% of arable land were 18% below average, reflecting a lull across the oilseed-growing areas of central
 
India. India is sticking to its forecast for an average monsoon this year despite a slow start, with July and August providing the majority of rainfall and helping to moisten the earth for sowing and to mature planted crops. Rains, from June 1, have been 23% below average compared to a 10.7% surplus in June 1-29 last year.

Yogesh Kumar Dahiya, chairman of the Farmers Forum of UP's Saharanpur, said: "The cost-to-benefit ratio is going down in agriculture and therefore farmers are not in a position to buy agri inputs that have become costlier. In Saharanpur, many farmers have already sold their household gold to create a kitty for irrigating fields in case the monsoon is further delayed.

The power situation in this part of the country is very poor and therefore farmers are using generators to irrigate land. Using generators, the cost of irrigation has gone up to 5,000 per hectare while with electricity supply, it is only 200 per hectare."

The Economic Times, 6 July, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/farmers-sell-gold-on-fears-of-poor-crop/articleshow/14699088.cms


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